Get to know the candy bears and keep track of them. Candy Crush Soda Saga introduces candy bears, which you need to get to know intimately immediately. You need them to make combinations with which you can use to raise up the Soda Bar. When it's raised high enough, you'll save them and you'll be able to pass through to the next level. Make them a top priority when it comes to making matches in order to progress and you'll be sitting pretty instead of throwing money at the game to ensure you see the next area.
Be aware of important changes to the core game. With new sodas comes changes to familiar candies, such as the Fish candy, which only removes one candy now rather than what it used to be able to do. Keep that in mind when matching four candies to create one, and make sure you're not relying on older strategies to clear the board, and you'll be good to go!
When in doubt, go for the combo. If you ever have two special candies like stripes and rainbow together at once, go ahead and ignite them, since they can take out over half the board if you need a quick save. This can also help you get to places which are off the board or otherwise difficult to reach. Don't use combos willy-nilly, though - save them for when you really need them!
Hold off on buying or using additional power-up. It's possible to get past the first few dozens of levels without ever purchasing a power-up. But you'll have to be clever about it if you want to save some money, so make sure you try out all of the different strategies and pathways presented to you before
Restart levels that don't appeal to you. If you start a level that's lacking a cluster of similarly-colored candies or a setup that doesn't look conducive to victory, just close out the game without completing the level and go back into it. Since each level is random, this will work to your advantage. Eventually, you'll get a board where you can create some easy combo candies with minimal effort. Clear out candies on wrappers near the edges: Every so often, you'll find candies still on their wrappers.
Instead of just trying to clear the inner candies, which will fall into place as you clear out pieces from the bottom, focus your attention to the corners and bottom of the board. Clearing out the edges will summarily ensure you clear out the center, too!
